Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star
ST. LOUIS — Indiana State men’s basketball coach Kevin McKenna proved the preseason prognosticators wrong, improving the Sycamores place in the Missouri Valley Conference pecking order by two spots over their preseason predicted position despite the team suffering through potentially devastating injuries.
It was a coaching performance that league voters took note of in the Coach of the Year balloting, but ultimately, the job Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson did in leading the Panthers to a dominant league title helped UNI’s coach win Coach of the Year for the second year running.
McKenna was second in the voting. Jacobson took 35 of 40 first-place votes. Jacobson is the first back-to-back winner since Creighton’s Dana Altman won it back-to-back in 2001 and 2002. He is only the fourth coach in league history to win the honor back-to-back since 1949, when the league began the award.
McKenna earned four first-place votes, 19 second-place votes and 12 third-place votes. Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall, who finished third in the balloting, received the last third-place vote.
McKenna was glad to be recognized, but when asked when he gives himself time to reflect on individual honors and what it means to the ISU program, he seemed focused on the task at hand for the Sycamores at the MVC Tournament.
“I don’t give it much thought at all. The only reason my name was considered is because of what our team did,” McKenna said. “So from my standpoint, I don’t think about those types of things at all.”
McKenna eluded to Harry Marshall’s selection on the All-MVC Second Team to reflect his own feelings.
“Harry made Second Team All-Conference and that is a great accomplishment, but I think he would much rather be playing on Sunday than being a First Team All-Conference player. And I’m the same way. Ben was very deserving of that award. You know, you get what you get,” McKenna said.
Creighton coach Dana Altman was won MVC Coach of the Year honors twice. McKenna worked on Altman’s Creighton staff in two different stints for nine years, so if McKenna was reluctant to talk about himself, Altman wasn’t hesistant to sing his praises.
“There was no doubt in my mind that at some point and time Kevin would get it going. He got it started. He’ll keep getting State going even more. He’s a coach who knows what he wants and how to build a successful program, I think,” Altman said. “I voted for him second, I thought Ben did a great job. Ben deserved it, but Kevin was right there.”
• Printy, Carter on Scholar Athlete teams — ISU’s Aaron Carter and Jordan Printy were Second Team selections for the MVC’s Scholar Athlete teams.
Printy had the highest grade-point average of any player on either the First or Second Teams. A Social Studies Education major, Printy has a GPA of 3.81.
Carter, a Business Management major, has a GPA of 3.34.
Northern Iowa’s Adam Koch was named Scholar Athlete of the Year. He was also the Larry Bird Player of the Year.
• UNI players say trust is the difference — Jacobson had no head coaching experience when he became UNI’s head coach in 2006, but he’s built upon the foundation former UNI coach and now Iowa State coach Greg McDermott started and has augmented it.
UNI, once a league doormat, is a two-time league champion. Jacobson himself is two-time reigning Coach of the Year. How has he done it?
“He definitely instills a sort of confidence in you that coaches have done in the past. But he instills confidence in you with his actions and the way he talked to you. You know whatever happens in the game, his confidence is never changing throughout the game about you. If he makes a few mistakes here and there, he’s always even keel about the situation. That’s been the biggest thing through our team. Through the ups and downs he’s been high on us the whole time,” UNI guard Ali Farokhmanesh said.
• Rare distinction — The All-MVC First Team, announced Tuesday, was comprised entirely of seniors. It doesn’t seem like an unusual distinction at first thought, but in fact, it’s an extremely rare occurence in MVC history.
How rare? The last time the MVC had an All-Senior First Team was 1915. The 1915 all-conference team was comprised of four players from 1915 Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Association league champion Kansas and one from Kansas State.
The MVIA, forerunner of the MVC, was once comprised of schools that eventually formed the Big Six Conference, later the Big 8 Conference, and now, the Big 12 Conference. Drake is the only current MVC member that was in the conference in 1915.
